Digestion, Not Weight Loss

My whole facebook feed is about everyone's pre-holiday diet right now. All my female family members gripe about how their weight watchers didn't go well this week. Every time I see/hear anything like this, I just want to yell - your approach is all wrong! Weight shouldn't be the focus! Whether you can digest the food you eat or not is the issue!! But they'll just think I'm some weird hippie almost-vegan because, after much explanation, they still think that my choice to not eat certain foods because a blood test showed that I couldn't digest them means I'M the weirdo. I've never felt better, my skin cleared up after years of acne - some of these people have even noticed and complimented me on it! - and then proceeded to huff when they think my 'diet' will inconvenience them for lunch. While I'm not a skinny skinny person, I'm normal-sized for me and my weight hasn't fluctuated at all (it used to a lot every season) since I cut out dairy and eggs. BECAUSE I COULDN'T DIGEST THEM. It wasn't much of a choice. My main focus now is eating things I can digest, and making sure I do. I want to tell everyone I know this is key - find out what YOU can eat, and what you can't - but they brush it off like I have no idea what I'm talking about. Or they say they like cheese too much. I can only say cheese tastes way way better when you can only eat fancy goat cheese or haven't had it for a while and indulge in some really good stuff occasionally. Just trying to make your lives easier and your bodies function better, friends. Dieting is overrated and you know it doesn't work!

13 Comments

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What works best

Dec 6, 2018 at 9:28pm

Is consuming less calories than what you burn ie getting exercise.

15 9Rating: +6

Anonymous

Dec 6, 2018 at 10:14pm

Maybe they brush you off like you don't know what you're talking about because you don't know what you're talking about. There's no such thing as a blood test that reliably shows what foods you can and can't digest. As someone with IBS, this is something I know. But hey, don't take it from me. Take it from a qualified medical professional who can tell you that there's no such thing as a blood test that reliable shows what foods you can and can't digest.

17 8Rating: +9

What

Dec 6, 2018 at 10:52pm

Blood test did you get? I'd be interested in having one done.

6 13Rating: -7

Anonymous

Dec 7, 2018 at 12:12am

I think you're on to something. The key is education about what you are eating. What it does to your body. What it consists of. When you understand food you can control your body inside and out.

4 9Rating: -5

Okay thanks

Dec 7, 2018 at 6:59am

But you do realize that there’s no medical evidence that those blood tests are valid, right? Just another way to separate the gullible from their money....

19 3Rating: +16

Mitch

Dec 7, 2018 at 7:33am

You people need to get off Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and start living in the real world.

18 3Rating: +15

Food

Dec 7, 2018 at 8:44am

I’m glad you found the source of your skin irritation: Dairy and eggs. I knew people who had cystic acne well into their adulthood, and it suddenly disappeared once they cut out dairy.

As a woman, I find the way some women obsess about food really annoying. If you haven’t got your diet and eating sorted out, how the hell are you going to do other things in your life like focussing in your career, athletic, creative, community contributions and achievements? Wallowing in food issues means one is not applying their mental energy elsewhere. I would snooze those Facebook feeds obsessing over holiday eating for 30 days. And then another 30 days if it doesn’t stop.

12 5Rating: +7

I feel the same way

Dec 7, 2018 at 10:20am

about avocado toast

I'm Glad

Dec 7, 2018 at 11:42am

that I don't have friends like yours,
or facebook

6 8Rating: -2

OP

Dec 7, 2018 at 12:07pm

So it's not a 'magical blood test' that tells you what foods you can and can't digest, BUT it feels like that. I had a basic "E95 Common Food Panel" done with my ND, they draw your blood, it goes off to Meridian Valley Lab, and you receive a bar chart based on your body's antibodies/reactions to common foods - ie: what your gut reacts negatively to. These levels will change over time, as your gut flora gets healthy, but you start by avoiding the foods you react to. You can also rotate them, to not overload your system.

"Eating Alive" is an amazing old book that will help you learn about improving your gut flora in understandable ways, without boring you to hell.

I'm sorry you have IBS, poster above, I do admit I don't know anything about IBS. But I would guess that improving your gut flora by finding out what foods make your gut inflamed based on antibodies in your blood can't hurt you?

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